Due to the ever increasing demand by numerous businesses for efficient mail handling equipment, many systems have been developed in an attempt to automatically receive envelopes, slit the envelope open, and present the contents thereof in a manner which is most efficiently handled by an operator. Although these prior art systems have been reasonably efficient in receiving the envelopes and slitting the envelopes open, substantial difficulty has been encountered in separating the slit envelope and presenting the contents thereof reliably and repeatedly in a manner which is easily and conveniently removed by an individual for checking and processing.
Although various prior art systems have been developed to meet the needs of industry, these prior art attempts have been unable to provide an envelope handling system which is capable of repeatedly and reliably separating the pre-slit envelopes and presenting the contents in a manner which is easily reached by the operator for efficient and speedy removal and processing. One typical prior art method is to blow air into the pre-slit envelope in an attempt to enable the operator to reach in and remove the contents therefrom. However, this system has proven to be extremely slow, as well as inefficient in opening the envelope sufficiently for consistent and repeatable access by the operator.
Other prior art systems have employed a vacuum in an attempt to draw the sides of the envelope away from each other while the contents of the envelope are to remain stationary until captured by a track or reached by the operator for removal. One of these prior art vacuum systems employ vacuum ports which are positioned perpendicularly to the line of travel of the envelope in juxtaposed spaced facing relationship to each other. However, in use, it has been found that these prior art systems are incapable of repeatedly, consistently, and reliably maintaining the contents in the desired orientation or properly opening the envelope.
In particular, these prior art vacuum systems have been found to be incapable of drawing only the sides of the envelope, without also adversely affecting the contents thereof. Consequently, both the contents and the envelope side are drawn to the vacuum, causing the contents to be improperly positioned and requiring special attention by the operator. Furthermore, these prior art vacuum systems are extremely noisy, in view of the high level of suction required to draw the envelopes to the vacuum head.
Another common difficulty encountered with the prior art systems is the requirement for special attention by the operator to assure that the envelope has been separated in the precisely desired manner before reaching the end of the conveyor or track. This special attention is required to be certain that part of the envelope contents, such as a statement, check, or informative letter, have not been improperly positioned with one side of the envelope.
In an attempt to address this problem, some prior art systems have incorporated sensors to stop the envelope transfer system if envelope contents are sensed as the envelope passes to waste disposal. However, such systems are totally incapable of stopping the transfer system if some of the envelope contents are removed and another component, such as a check or note is not in the proper orientation and, instead, is positioned with the side of the envelope. In these systems, if the operator fails to observe this improper condition, the contents of the envelope become separated, and processing errors are often incurred.
Therefore it is a principal object of the present invention to provide an automated envelope handling system which is capable of repeatedly, reliably and consistently separating a pre-slit envelope from the contents thereof, and reliably presenting the entire envelope contents in the precisely desired orientation for processing.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an automated envelope handling system having the characteristic features described above, which is capable of operating at a substantially reduced decibel or noise level, thereby providing a system which is comfortable for the operators to use.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an automated envelope handling system having the characteristic features described above, which substantially eliminates mishandling of the envelope contents.
A further object of the present invention is to provide an automated envelope handling system having the characteristic features described above which also provides sensing means for checking the sides of the envelope to determine if any additional papers are attached thereto, thereby indicating the presence of improperly positioned material which should be processed.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an automated envelope handling system having the characteristic features described above which also incorporates automatic shut-off means responsive to the sensing means to terminate the envelope transfer processing whenever an error is detected.
Other and more specific objects will in part be obvious and will in part appear hereinafter.